MARTIN O'MALLEY:
Time for a hockey renaissance
CBC News Viewpoint | September 17, 2004 | More from Martin O'Malley
At least one generation of Canadians knows the line, "The state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation." Pierre Elliott Trudeau made it famous, but the line belongs to Martin O'Malley, who wrote it when he was with The Globe and Mail. He's written eight books, on topics such as the Canadian North, medicine, murder, media literacy and baseball. He wrote it with John Pungente, a world authority on media literacy.
Ten years ago, in the early summer of 1994, the late Peter Gzowski called me from his cottage by Lake Simcoe to pronounce on the players' strike that ended the major-league baseball season. He said, "I don't miss it nearly as much as I thought I would. I have so much more time to do other things."
Some of the "other things" were reading, thinking, cooking, a competitive evening of bridge at his kitchen table – and golf. I drove up later that day and Peter and I played 18 holes at The Briars, a lovely, sun-freckled course next to his beloved teal cottage with the fireplace, an ample patio and a clerestory that allowed light in on the harshest February afternoon.
If Peter were alive this week I'm sure he would say the same thing of the National Hockey League lockout/strike that has so many Canadians moaning and bitching as if their lives had ended. We both loved baseball and hockey but he convinced me that even these treasures can effect a tyranny on us.
By mid-summer that year I, too, didn't miss baseball at all. No, not quite true – I didn't miss major-league baseball that year. There was plenty of baseball to enjoy at Christie Pits in downtown Toronto, and at the fetching diamond in Leaside called Talbot Park.
There will be plenty of hockey to enjoy this winter, if we visit the neighbourhood arenas where their admission often is free and an early-morning coffee and hotdog gets you change from a $5 bill.
Many will suffer from the end of the NHL season, but it won't be the owners and players I feel sorry for. It will be those who love watching the game, and those whose everyday work involves the game, such as the dedicated professionals at CBC' s Hockey Night in Canada who put so much excellent effort into bringing the games to all of us. These professionals earn about what I earn, which is far below the average NHL salary of some $2 million.
The lockout/strike might be good for hockey. It might be good in the way summer fallow is good for the farmer, giving the fields time for the moisture and nutrients in the soil to recover. The lockout/strike also comes at a time when professional hockey needs to take stock of itself.
It's worth noting that the NHL lockout/strike hardly merits attention in the news across the United States, and why should it, coming under the radar below basketball, football, baseball, auto racing, golf, tennis and Survivor.
I mean, why in hell are there NHL teams in Nashville, Columbus, Atlanta, Phoenix, St. Louis, Dallas, Miami or even Tampa Bay (winners of the last Stanley Cup). My son and I watched a hockey game in Tampa Bay in the 1990s and never have I encountered such abysmal knowledge of the game. Chatting with Americans outside at intermission in the 30-degree heat, we heard "fans" insisting that professional hockey is like professional wrestling, with the fights staged as they are in those phoney and loutish bouts.
One good thing that could come about – my son suggested this during the recent World Cup of Hockey tournament – is a true world hockey league. Keep, say, six or so of the best North American franchises – Montreal, Toronto, New York, Boston, Detroit, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton – and play the Finns, Swedes, Czechs and Russians.
Think of it: use baseball's format of three-game series in Helsinki and Moscow and New York and Prague. There would be great incentive to travel abroad and enjoy fast, tough, robust hockey around the world. Later there could be teams in Germany, Italy, Holland, China, Japan and who knows where else. The arenas would be packed, and when arenas are packed lucrative television deals follow.
Goodbye Columbus.
The closest I got to hockey was in the mid-1980s when I commuted to West Palm Beach, Fla., to research and write a book on the life of Brian (Spinner) Spencer. He had been charged with murder after his 10-year NHL career, playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Islanders, Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins.
People often consider Spinner a borderline talent, but he stuck it out in the NHL as a tough winger for 10 years, when the average NHL career is only about four. He played in a Stanley Cup final against the Montreal Canadiens. The most he ever earned was $100,000, but that didn't stop him from buying a 1959 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud, which he thought his status warranted.
By comparison to other stars in the game, Spinner was handsomely paid. The great Jean Beliveau in 1957-58 earned $21,000. Ten years later, Bobby Orr earned $35,000. And, as the National Post reminded us this week, in 1917-18 the superstar Newsy Lalonde earned $1,300.
Oh yes, Spinner Spencer: the book appeared in 1989, titled Gross Misconduct: The Life of Spinner Spencer. It was director Atom Egoyan's only television movie, but Spinner died before it hit the small screen. He was murdered on a dark street in West Palm Beach in May 1989, the victim of a botched hold-up.
LETTERS:
Mr. O'Malley makes several good points in suggesting a greater
emphasis on international play, a lack of sympathy for all the
millionaires concerned and sadness on behalf of the Hockey fan; but
where he goes astray is in his criticism of fans in the American
expansion teams.
The comments being seen on these television snippets are intentionally
selected to showcase the most hockey illiterate Americans the
journalists can find.
When he criticises Tampa I especially have to take issue, as there was
not an empty seat to be found in any of their playoff games, and they
supported their team all the way through the finals.
I spent the better part of the last season explaining Hockey to my
girlfriend and her brother who have never played this great game. They
were both born and raised in Canada but never bothered to watch or
learn anything about hockey.
New markets are not a problem, they are growth. The fans in
cities like Nashville, San Jose, Dallas and Tampa are some of the best
in the game, I'm glad to share our game with them as they, unlike
their Quebec counterparts, seem to appreciate fair play and integrity
in sport.
Philip Beauchesne
I agree with you whole-heartedly, especially with the idea of a World
Hockey League.
Hopefully, it would be administered by hockey fans, rather than the
accountants
who run the NHL.
One other comment;
How did the National Hockey League become custodians of the Stanley Cup?
It's our cup.
Why don't we take it back?
John C. Pettit
Right up front, I need to say I'm not a hockey fan.
Haven't been since the league expanded from 6 teams.
I use to be a baseball fan, a huge one. But 20 plus years of being let
down by the Expos and then the strike took care of that.
Like you, I'm a freelancer, and have been for almost 20 years. I work
in television and I agree with you that the CBC does a stellar job of
large venue sporting events. Where we disagree is in your lament for
the employees of the CBC. The fact of the matter is that these men and
women will still earn their paycheques whether or not they work on the
hockey telecasts. I feel for our freelance brothers and sisters: camera
operators, sound people, production assistants, technicians, many of
whom rely on those same hockey telecasts for a sizable portion of their
incomes. And let's not forget the guy who sells peanuts in the stands,
and when all is said and done, the guy who cleans up those peanut shells.
Like the fauna you wrote about recently in your hurricane column, these
folks are the forgotten, the ones no one seems to contemplate or
consider, the ones that don't have a union with a war chest to tied them
over, or multi million dollar personal bank accounts to weather this
tempest in a tea cup.
I feel for them, not the owners, or the players.
Chuck Rubin
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